MONTREAL -- Former Martlet star
Ann-Sophie Bettez scored twice, including the game-winner, as the Montreal Canadiennes skated to a 6-0 whitewash over McGill in a women's hockey exhibition game at McConnell Arena, Friday.
The Canadiennes, who won the Clarkson Cup last spring as CWHL champions, outshot McGill 39-24. They iced a formidible roster of NCAA and U SPORTS grads, featuring five former Martlets: Joining Bettez in the lineup was
Cathy Chartrand,
Katia Clément-Heydra,
Jordanna Peroff and goaltender
Catherine Herron, who registered a 24-save shutout.
"We're a young group and playing against a team of their idols," said McGill head coach
Peter Smith. "So we go into that (scenario) and were back on our heels a bit to start off with, and then we didn't have a great start. But overall I'm glad we played this game. I think it'll make us better."
Bettez opened the scoring on the power play just 40 seconds into the contest. Defenceman
Nachi Fujimoto added another goal at 6:22 and
Noémie Marin tallied at 12:01 before Bettez made the score 4-0 with just 38 seconds left in the period.
"Obviously... we got in a hole early," said Smith. "We were a little nervous going in and certainly getting an early penalty and a goal against didn't help. For the rest of that period we kept turning pucks over in our own zone and losing battles. But I give our players credit. In the second and third they battled back hard and regained some confidence and started to play with that team, which is obviously a real talented and experienced group."
Kim Deschênes scored at 10:53 of the middle frame and defenceman
Cassandra Poudrier finished it off with a goal at 6:01 of the third. Martlets netminder
Tricia Deguire of Sherbrooke, Que., made 33 saves and took the loss.
Montreal was 1-for-3 on the power play, while McGill failed to capitalize on six opportunities.
The Martlets travel to Cambridge, Mass., on Friday, Oct. 13 to begin their final weekend of preseason play, a series of exhibitions against NCAA squads Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth.
The Canadiennes open their CWHL campaign against Boston on Oct. 14.
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